[REFERENCE] Skill Setting Descriptions

I have a half day of work today so I thought I'd use it to polish off a list of skill settings I've been gradually putting together. This info doesn't seem to be on the Wiki. A couple of small caveats:
- Some of this is likely wrong. Please tell me if I goofed or there is more you can add to a setting.
- There are a few settings I know nothing more about than Runic's footnotes in the hint bar. I listed these with an entry of ???
- This list consists of settings at the Skill level only. I haven't got any documentation for Events yet.

SKILL GLOBALS
Activation
Describes the mechanism that activates this skill.
• ANY
• NORMAL – The skill is activated by players from the skill bar. For monsters, the skill is used at random when the skill is available and the monster has a suitable target.
• PASSIVE – The skill is activated immediately upon the generation of the unit.
• PROC- The skill procs from other skills
• WEAPON

Allow Turning
True or false. Determines whether the player can turn their character model with the mouse while the animation for this skill is playing.

Can Approach
True or false. Part of monster AI. Determines whether a monster is allowed to approach the enemy in order to unleash this attack if the target is currently out of range. Default is true.

Can Attack Fallback
True or false. If true, if the user doesn’t have enough mana to cast this skill, a basic weapon attack is launched instead. Default is false.

Charges
??

Don’t Stop on Death
True or false. If true, the skill continues even if after the user dies. If false, the power ends when the user dies. Default is false.

Group Name
Runic documentation suggests the Group Name is a lockout field that prevents the user from casting skills from the same group while the effects of one are active. (I have not tested to see if it works.)

Hidden
True or false. Indicates whether the skill is hidden (usually as the proc of another skill.) Default is false. This setting has a few nuances:
• Hidden skills don’t show up as options for players to put on their cast bars, even if their activation type is set to NORMAL
• Unhidden skills can show up as options for the cast bar even if the player doesn’t actually know the skill. This is caused by the player having ranks in a parent skill that calls the child skill in an EXECUTE_SKILL statement
• Any skill that is unhidden that the player has access to either directly or as a proc through EXECUTE_SKILL grants respec points even the player only knows it because of a parent skill execution
• Recommendation: For parent skills, always false. For anything called via EXECUTE_SKILL, always true.

Ignore LOS
The effects of the spell ignore line of sight checks.

Is Trap
??

Name
The global name of this spell. Try not to confuse with Display Name (the name players see in game). Used as an identifier when referencing the skill in the skill override GUI, with a CAST SKILL ON effect, or with EXECUTE_SKILL

Notes
A field where you can add your own notes. Has no direct effect on the game.

Req Pathable
The skill can execute only if there is a viable path between caster and target.

Req Passable LOS
The skill can execute only if there is line of sight between caster and target.

Show in UI Buff List
True or false. If true, any Affixes or Effects applied by the skill will show in the player or monster’s buff bar. The icon used is the icon for the skill that placed the affix or effect.

Skill Type
Appears to be a legacy setting that is no longer used.

Animation
The global name of the animation file to use for this skill. In this context “animation” refers to the movement of the character model, not (usually) the particle effects of the power.
• Animation is only played for skills with an Activation of NORMAL
• If a parent skill calls a child skill with EXECUTE_SKILL, only the parent’s animation is used
Dual Wield Animation
An override for Animation that applies specifically to cases where the player wields two weapons of the same type. If the player wields two different kinds of weapon (eg sword and pistol together) this animation is not used. If it is left blank, Animation is used for all casts of the spell instead.

Loop Animation
The animation to use for a looping skill.

Loop DW Animation
An override for looping skills.

Speed
The cast speed of the skill. Measured as a decimal multiplier. 1.0 is the default and means “x1”. 1.5 is the same as “x1.5” or “50% faster.”

Trigger
A string that describes the trigger conditions of the skill. Rarely used.

Use Weapon Anim
True or false. If true, the skill uses the default attack animation of the weapon the player has equipped instead of a custom animation. If Use Weapon Anim and Animation are both set, Use Weapon Anim wins.

REQUIREMENTS

Left Req List
An inclusive list of unit types, at least one member of which must match the unittype of the weapon in the player’s left hand.
• If both Left Req List and Right Reg List are set, and Req Duel Wield is False, then a weapon in either hand matching a unittype is considered a “pass”
• If both Left Req List and Right Reg List are set, and Req Duel Wield is True, the player must have at least one weapon from each list. The two weapons DO NOT have to be of the same type.

Level Req Graph
Sets the level at which the skill unlocks. Most skills for players use a graphs from the SKILLTIER# family. For example, the graph SKILLTIER2 is used for skills that unlock at tier 2/level 7 in the standard game.

Level Required
The level required to use the skill. For most player skills this is not changed from the default (1).

Not Theme
Prevents the skill from activating if the caster is currently subject to a specific UnitTheme . This is not a list field, so only one UnitTheme can be supplied.

Req Duel Wield
Changes the Left Req List and Right Req List settings from being inclusive together to being exclusive. See Left Req List for additional details.

Requires Target
The skill cannot be activated at all unless it has a target.

Right Req List
See Left Req List.

Theme Required
Similar to Not Theme, but in reverse. The skill cannot be activated unless the caster is currently affected by the UnitTheme that matches the name supplied.

SKILL

Breakout Threshold
A threshold that allows players to break out of a skill animation before the animation is complete. Accepts numeric parameters that appear to represent either seconds or a percentage (unsure at this time). Note that if the breakout occurs prior to the trigger in an animation firing, the player could break out of it prior to any effects taking place. Default is 0.

Can be Silenced
True or false. Can the Silence effect prevent use of this skill? Default is true.

Can Proc from Skill
True or false. If true, this skill can proc from another skill. If false, it cannot. This distinction mainly comes into play with effects of the CAST SKILL ON… variety. For example, CAST SKILL ON HIT will normally fire both for weapon attacks and for skill attacks if the attacking skill sets Apply Effects to true. Setting Can Proc from Skill to false allows the skill to only be castable from weapons. Note that the basic attacks of Shotguns and Cannons as well as some other weapons seem to be considered “skills” for these purposes.

Continuous Looping
True or false. If true, the skill continues to loop as long as the player holds down the activation button. In order for this to function, the skill must also have a Loop Animation set.

Cooldown
The skill’s cooldown, written in milliseconds. (There are 1000 milliseconds in one second, so 30 seconds = 30000 milliseconds).

Duration Override
An override setting that forces Layouts called by this skill to end after a period of time. Mainly, this seems to be used by skills that use looping layouts and particle effects. See Embermage Flame Aura for an example. Note that this setting does not appear to affect the duration of Affixes or Effects, just Layouts.

Interruptable
If true, the skill can be interrupted by the interrupt effect.

Mana Cost
The mana cost of the skill. Mainly used for monster skills with a mana cost and for skills that don’t have levels (eg scrolls).

Mana Cost Graph
A graph that autocalculates mana costs for a skill across all of its levels. Used for most player skills. For looping skills, this only sets the launch cost, not the cost to maintain.

Mana Cost OT
The mana cost to maintain a looping skill.

Mana Graph Scale
A multiplier for the Mana Cost Graph that can adjust the graph’s values. For example, a setting of 0.5 mutliplies the graph values by 0.5 (ie reduces them in half).

Minimum Time
For looping skills, determines how long the skill must operate before it can be released. Measured in milliseconds. For example, if the player taps the activation button and immediately lets go, and this were set to a very high number like 10000 (10 seconds) the player is forced to maintain the skill for 10 seconds after releasing it. Most looping skills set this to around 1000 to 500.

Pets Allowed
The maximum number of pets the player can have active. In theory, if the player exceeds this number, the spell can’t be cast. Unsure if used.

Slowdown Duration
??

Stop on Target Death
True or false. If true, the skill stops immediately when the target dies.

Target Corpses
True or false. Does the skill target corpses. Note that there are some things skills can’t do to corpses even if they can target them.

Turn Rate Override
Runic documentation suggests this is used only for monsters, and that for players should be set to -1.

SKILL TARGETING

Can skill target hidden and disabled units
True or false. Appears to determine whether a skill can target units in these states. I have not tested.

Don’t Target Smashables
True or false. Appears to determine whether a smashable can be the primary target of the skill. If this is set to true but other aspects of the skill deliver damage, smashables appear to still be hit (test this to make sure if you plan to develop based on it, though).

Find Target Angle
The angle that (combined with Range) determines the area in which a mouse click converts from a movement command to a command to use the skill.

Ignore Target Unittype
Causes the skill to ignore units of the specified UnitType. This is not a list field, so only one UnitType can be ignored. Unsure whether this applies only to the primary target or to everything.

Ignore Units
List field. Skill ignores a specific unit (as opposed to a UnitType). Unsure whether this applies only to the primary target or to everything.

Max Random Position
??

Min Random Position
??

Range
The range of the power, for execution purposes only. This setting appears to determine the range at which a mouse click converts from a movement command to a command to use the skill. If the Range is large but the damage area small, it’s likely the player the will often swing at empty air and nothing will happen. Note that Range does not appear to be enforced for Position based skills.

Range Min
The minimum range of the skill. Appears to be an enforceable condition that controls skill execution. For example, a Min Range of 4 means the skill can’t execute within 4 meters of the target. See

Single Target
Presumably limits the skill to a single target.

Snap Target Type to ground
Presumably forces a Position target to snap to the ground. I’m unsure what “ground” means in terms of this setting. Position based skills already snap to the geometry of the map, whether this is set or not, so its technical function is not understood by me.

Target Alignment
A filter that causes the skill to only target units of a specific alignment. This appears to filter all units struck by the skill, not just primary target. The usual settings here are GOOD (for beneficial skills) and EVIL (for attacks). This is from the perspective of the caster, so a Monster’s healing spell should target GOOD if it’s supposed to hit the monster’s allies. Setting ALL will allow the skill to hit all units. The default for this field is an empty string. It’s not clear to me how or whether the default differs from ALL. I’ve attempted to use the additional settings (eg EVIL BERSERK) without success.

Target Range
Unknown usage. This setting is left at the default (0) for most Runic-created skills. See: Range.

Target Units
Unsure whether this applies only to the primary target or to everything.

Target Unittype
Unsure whether this applies only to the primary target or to everything.

0

Comments

So, I had just made a post asking a question about a skill I've made as it was not working correctly..... then I read this post and your information helped me fix it. Thank you very much! Now I can release my new mod.

Pets Allowed
The maximum number of pets the player can have active. In theory, if the player exceeds this number, the spell can’t be cast. Unsure if used.

With regards to this line, every pet has its own maximum number that can be summoned. This is found in Units>Monsters>[choose monster]>Stats>Max Pets. When more pets are summoned than this number, the oldest pets are killed, or unsummoned if they have affixes and particles for it. The default when the line is left blank is 8.
What "Pets Allowed" in Skills does is prevent casting the summoning skill when your active number of pets reaches the limit. I tested this out with the main pet, and it counts into Pets Allowed, so theoretically all pets active of whatever type are checked by this limit. The default, -1, allows you to use the skill regardless of how many pets you have active.

Speed
The cast speed of the skill. Measured as a decimal multiplier. 1.0 is the default and means “x1”. 1.5 is the same as “x1.5” or “50% faster.”

To be clear, cast speed is the speed of the associated animation for the skill. Increasing this multiplier will make the trigger associated with the animation fire faster, but if there's a delay set into the triggered layout it will be unaffected.

There's an important one that's missing, in between Target Range and Target Units:

Target Type

There are several options, but I'm 90% sure that setting Target Type: Position will disable target locking, turning skills like Arcbeam and Rapid Fire into pure skillshots. This is extremely useful in these cases, because without this tag, the default behavior is goofy - it acts like a skillshot if no target is under the cursor, but otherwise, it continuously fires in the direction of the unit until you stop channeling, which can be frustrating if you want to switch targets without restarting the animation completely, or if you modded the skill to have a cooldown timer...

I felt this info was important enough to warrant a necro, since I personally found the question asked three times but never answered.